Dr Crippen: Just don't try giving me the swine flu vaccine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/08/dr-crippen-swine-flu
The government's chief commissar for immunisations, Professor David Salisbury,
has said that nurses have a "duty" to be immunised against
swine flu. A poll by
nursingtimes.net showed that 30% of respondents would refuse to have it. If the
government is surprised at the number of nurses who will not have the
immunisation, just wait to see what happens when they offer it to doctors. On
the facts available to date, I will not be having it. Nor will my family. I will
not be the only doctor taking this view.
In 1976, after a swine flu outbreak at Fort Dix in the US, a vaccine was hastily
manufactured. It had to be withdrawn a few weeks later as it was causing serious
neurological problems. Science has moved on since then, you may say. That could
not happen now. But, if governments have confidence in the safety of the
vaccine, why has Kathleen Sebelius, the US Secretary of Health and Human
Services, felt it necessary to sign a document making federal officials and
vaccine makers immune from lawsuits related to any ill-effects from the vaccine?
Why has the UK government sent letters to neurologists asking them to be on the
alert for neurological complications caused by the immunisation?
I did trust the government when it introduced an emergency vaccination programme
for smallpox. But smallpox was a deadly disease and the vaccination was tried,
tested and proven. The swine flu immunisation is being rushed out. It is of
uncertain efficacy. It is to be given to prevent a disease which, as yet, is
mild. The second wave of swine flu may be worse. I do not know. But I do know
that, if the virus mutates to a more virulent form, the immunisation may in any
case not work. We are in the run-up to an election. The government has to be
seen to be doing something.
Every year, like obedient sheep, thousands troop into their local health centre
to have a "flu immunisation". You may have had one last year. Did it work? I am
amazed that there has not been a public outcry of people saying, "Excuse me, I
had a flu jab last year and I still got swine flu."
Millions of trusting citizens may have the new swine flu immunisation. If
something goes wrong, as it did at Fort Dix, we could have a major medical
disaster.
Dr Crippen is the pseudonym for a long-serving GP. Every week he will bring
us a first-hand account of what's really happening in the
NHS.